The Day We Meet Again by Miranda Dickinson #NetGalley #book #review @HQstories @wurdsmyth #TheDayWeMeet Again

The Day We Meet Again by Miranda Dickinson

Published by HQ

Publication date: 5th September 2019

Genre: Romance

Book Description:

Their love story started with goodbye…

‘We’ll meet again at St Pancras station, a year from today. If we’re meant to be together, we’ll both be there. If we’re not, it was never meant to be . . .’

Phoebe and Sam meet by chance at St Pancras station. Heading in opposite directions, both seeking their own adventures, meeting the love of their lives wasn’t part of the plan. So they make a promise: to meet again in the same place in twelve months' time if they still want to be together.

But is life ever as simple as that?

This is a story of what-ifs and maybes – and how one decision can change your life forever…

My Review:

I was delighted to be approved for a review copy of Miranda Dickinson's new novel The Day We Meet Again - I loved A Parcel for Anna Browne so was looking forward to a nice romance after a summer packed with crime novels and psychological thrillers.

Sam Mullins and Phoebe Jones are early 30's London residents, each looking for something in life: Sam is curious to find out more about his absent father who walked away from Sam and his brother when they were children. Phoebe is looking to find herself more than anything, she needs to prove to herself she can be brave and do something outside her comfort zone. This is how the two singletons come to meet on an early summer morning at St Pancras station, Sam heading north to Scotland and Phoebe off to Europe for the adventure of her lifetime travelling the continent.

But Fate has other ideas so when all trains grind to a halt due to an unknown security issue the two find themselves busy going nowhere for the foreseeable amidst the crowds of frustrated commuters by the Betjeman statue.  I loved their meeting, the instant click of attraction between two people who previously had no intention of looking for a partner. All too soon the trains are running again and it's time to go.

And that for me triggered what I was hoping was going to be the best bit of the book: descriptions of beautiful places across France and Italy (which there were a few, but I hoped for more). The scenes of the Scottish isles and mainland were excellently written as were the emotions the two were battling with but somehow I seemed to get a bit bogged down in the twelve months of the couple's separation.

Then all was redeemed with the last third of the book which came back to life again once Sam and Phoebe were back on English soil. As is the usual case things don't run smoothly in the course of their budding relationship and my hopes for them were raised and dashed in regular turns as we headed to the end of the book. 

Overall I adored Sam and Phoebe and their hotch potch group of friends, although my interest did dip in the middle a little. Still a very nice read though. 3.75 stars rounded to 4.

My thanks to publisher HQ (via NetGalley) for an early review copy of this book.

About the Author:

Miranda Dickinson has always had a head full of stories. Born in Wolverhampton, in The Black Country, West Midlands, she grew up in Kingswinford and dreamed of one day writing a book that would reach the heady heights of Kingswinford Library... Her first novel, Fairytale of New York (2009) was discovered on Authonomy.com - HarperCollins' site for unpublished authors. Within three weeks of its release, Fairytale of New York had entered the Sunday Times Top Ten Bestsellers List, where it remained for five weeks - making it the world's first crowd-sourced bestseller. The novel was also shortlisted for the RNA's Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2010 at the Pure Passion Awards.

Miranda is a six-times Sunday Times Bestseller, with Fairytale of New York, Welcome to My World, It Started With a Kiss, When I Fall in Love, Take a Look at Me Now, I'll Take New York, A Parcel for Anna Browne and Searching for a Silver Lining. Her Christmas novella, Christmas in St Ives, is a festive treat and also a prequel to her ninth novel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. She is an international bestseller in four countries and her books have been translated into fifteen languages. To date, she has sold one million books worldwide.